The Truth About Firecrackers
Let’s begin our story from the year 1923, In a small village in Tamil Nadu, Sivakasi, P Ayya Nadar and his cousin Shanmuga Badar, leave their village to go on a journey. They go to Kolkata to learn how to make matchsticks. they return to their village 8 months later, import machines from Germany, train laborers, and start the business of producing matchsticks. They name their company National Matches. Some years later, they begin manufacturing firecrackers as well. Under the brand name National Fireworks.
The first firecracker they made was a sparkler. Their business runs smoothly for the next 10-20 years. And then came the second world war. That made things difficult for them. Importing from European countries became difficult. This led to a boom in manufacturers in India. Persons manufacturing, possessing, or selling firecrackers, are brought under an organized system, and the government gave licenses to them. After this, the first organized factory to manufacture fireworks was established in India. Mughals and Rajputs used fireworks a lot during the winter and late autumn. It was found that such a document does exist, In 1667, Aurangzeb issued a royal edict to the governors to impose a ban on fireworks. But interestingly, Duwali was not specifically pointed out here. And go further back than the Mughals. were firecrackers used even before the Mughal rule? The answer: Yes.
When America became independent, in 1776, fireworks were used for the celebrations. this is why, friends, even now, fireworks are a large part of the tradition of celebrating Independence Day. Another question that arises here is How were these firecrackers invented? It is said that around 200 BC, the Chinese accidentally discovered firecrackers. An alchemist was mixing some chemicals to discover the elixir of immortality, By chance, he mixed Sulphur, Charcoal, and Potassium Nitrate. When he set it on fire, there was a blast, and friends, this was how gunpowder was discovered. The fire chemical.
The thing is, had firecrackers been truly used in ancient India, we sould have seen those in paintings. But we see this only after the 1300s. Anyways, enough with the history. let’s get to the aspect of pollution. Do firecrackers cause pollution? Yes, absolutely. But the argument is about the level of pollution not being significant. The point is, there are many sources of pollution. That’s true. To call it negligible by averaging it over the year is extremely wrong. When there is so much pollution in a day due to a large number of firecrackers, it can be compared mindlessly like this. A single firecracker is equal to smoking 50 cigarettes at once in a closed room.
So, Friends, this was The Truth About Firecrackers.
